Aircraft hire

[Sensible Flyer]

Easy question. Does anyone know of a business which leases aircraft for private use? Nearest I can find is Aviation Rentals at Bournemouth, but it seems they lease only to flying schools and not individuals.

I don't think one exists.

If a business like this did exist, who would be interested? It would offer modern, cheaper to run aircraft such as SportCruiser, Flight Design CT series, Eurostar etc rather than 1960's Cessnas and Pipers.

My feeling is that a lot of syndicates are built around the older aircraft because of the lower capital cost. However with that come punishing maintenance and fuel costs which leads to little actual flying.

I'm thinking there's a market for a business that would allow the average PPL holder access to modern aircraft for less than the costs they have endured whilst training for their licence.
Say £100 a month and £20/hr dry? With limited subscriptions per aircraft to ensure decent availability.

It just might fly (excuse the pun!).

[Genghis the Engineer]

Such schemes appear periodically, a few chug along presumably making a reasonable profit, some vanish fairly quickly.

For example (http://www.cirrus147.com/), or alternatively this (http://www.afors.com/index.php?page=adview&adid=8673&imid=2)

G

[A and C]

You can forget the likes of the Sportcruiser as a private hire aircraft, aircraft like these are not robust enough for that sort of use.

The SC & the like are just fine for individual's and small groups of carefull owners, but will bankrupt anyone who thinks they can take the sort of punishment that the average C152 will take.

The only new Rotax powerd aircraft that I have seen that will have a chance of surviving the club/private hire enviroment is the Technam.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I semi-agree with you there.

The SC has a poor record to date, and I'm inclined to regard it as guilty until proven innocent. However, there are many 912 engined microlights that have been going for years and thousands of hours in the microlight club and school environment.

Light aeroplanes that share that ancestry should be as good as anything else.

G

[Rod1]

The Eurostar is sufficiently strong to hire out to students as it has been used for this purpose for some years. Most are also based from unlicensed grass strips, so no problem. Very easy machine to fly so would appear to be ideal.

Rod1